Strawberries are an important crop in many areas of the country. Most familiar to retail consumers are the one- or two-pint baskets of berries commonly found at grocers. This type of harvesting is characterized by the grower picking substantially "perfect" berries just before they are completely ripe. Such market harvest is typically performed so that the part of the berry immediately adjacent to the calyx, hereinafter the "shoulder", is green, or white in color. Final ripening of the berry occurs in the basket during transport to the market. In addition to this "market" sale of harvested berries, strawberries are commonly harvested and processed for at least two other uses.
A first alternative use for strawberries is the sale of berries, typically including bruised or damaged fruit, to packers for juice purposes. Strawberry juice is a product which is widely used in the manufacture of jams, preserves, strawberry filling, and other manufactured items requiring strawberry taste and sugar but which do not require whole or partial berry fruit. As might be expected, the sale of strawberries in this form is the least profitable of any of the harvest methodologies. Such use does however retain to the grower some profit for his efforts.
Berries are also sold to packers and other processors as substantially intact fruit, less those portions of the fruit not generally deemed edible. This is done by removing the calyxes from the fruit. Calyx removal can be accomplished either in packing houses or in the field by the harvest workers, and is typically accomplished by nothing more sophisticated than the removal of the calyx from the top of the berry with the worker's thumb or thumbnail. While this harvesting method results in the sale of fruit having an increased market value over berry juice, the methodology whereby calyxes are removed during processing or harvest results in several deleterious factors. Again, this produce item is sold by weight. Accordingly, it is economically important to the grower that the removal of the strawberry calyx removes a minimal amount of fruit by weight, and also does minimal damage to the berry whereby juice leakage occurs, again causing the grower weight, and thus profit, loss. This form of packaging is therefor typically performed on completely ripe fruit, as opposed to the previously discussed ripening fruit.
A first problem with the simple manual removal of calyxes from berries is the attendant and inherent lack of sanitation in the process. A second problem with this methodology is that it is inherently wasteful. The workers typically crush or destroy a significant part of each individual ripe berry as they remove the calyx utilizing this crude methodology. Moreover, the simple crushing or pinching of the upper part of the berry not only tends to remove more of the berry, and hence its value, than would be the case were the berry cleaned in a more orderly fashion, but the crushing of the upper part of the berry results in further loss of juice and increased spoilability of the harvested crop. Indeed, a crushed berry is very difficult, if not impossible, to effectively wash and sanitize prior to packaging. Finally, to enable the previously discussed manual means of calyx removal, the grower must allow the berries to remain on the stem for an additional 4-8 days longer than berries harvested for market. This means that the decision to make the former type of harvest is irrevocable.
In order to economically process berries by removing the calyx and a portion of the upper part of the berry so that the berries can be sold in their cleaned state, either the previously discussed crude manual methodology is employed, or the berries are removed to packing houses where workers clean them manually using knives and cutting boards. This latter methodology presents the disadvantage of handling each berry twice and imparts an additional manpower expense to the harvest process. Further, this subjects the berries to additional damage due to the additional handling.
What is needed is a methodology, and an apparatus to perform the methodology, which enables workers, particularly field workers, to rapidly and efficiently clean the berries as they are harvested. The methodology should enable the rapid removal of calyxes and a portion of the upper strawberry leaving the balance of the berry substantially uncrushed, or with reduced crushing, and with a neat sanitary cut as opposed to a crudely crushed upper surface, which leaks juice and pulp, thereby minimizing fruit loss. The methodology should enable and facilitate sanitation of the apparatus in field conditions. The apparatus should be safe for workers to use and minimize danger to the workers' hands while processing the berries under the extreme time pressures occasioned by the berry harvest. The methodology should adapt itself to current berry or fruit picking technology and ideally, form an adjunct thereto. Finally the apparatus to perfect the method should be capable of economic manufacture and distribution.